


Altean Tattoos

by ElfGrove



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Character Study, Gen, Lion Paladin Bond, Lion Paladin Psychic Bond, Magical Tattoos
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-06-07
Updated: 2017-06-07
Packaged: 2018-11-10 09:04:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 2,465
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11124066
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ElfGrove/pseuds/ElfGrove
Summary: Archiving from my tumblr flash fics. Fanart Response Ficlet. -- Jen-iii on tumblr did some gorgeous art pieces of the Paladins with glowing "Altean Tattoos" and I did some brief response fics about them.





	1. Green Paladin: Pidge

**Author's Note:**

> A response ficlet to fanart by jen-iii: http://jen-iii.tumblr.com/post/157432024646/
> 
> Fic originally posted here: http://elfgrove.tumblr.com/post/157536519518

They’d never really asked much about Altean biology versus Humans. They looked pretty close really, if you ignored the pointed ears, and the markings, and the shapeshifting… Okay, so they probably ( _definitely_ ) should have questioned this stuff earlier. But the Alteans were a far more advanced race, and diplomatic, accustomed to dealing with and their tech designed to handle a wide array of alien physiologies. When nothing had immediately gone sideways and no alarms had gone off, they’d just assumed everything was operating normally. They all had bigger fish to fry, the Galra Empire.

So she hadn’t mentioned it when the first flickering marking had shown up under the skin of her wrist. It was probably just a trick of the light anyways. Or sleep deprivation, with her, sleep deprivation was always a possibility.

A month and couple of trips in and out of the healing pods had revealed more markings, tracing a complex network up her arm. A lovely green color to match her Bayard and her Lion. They were pretty, and they didn’t really seem to  ** _do_** anything aside from glow softly in the dark. 

She decided not to mention it. She already was subconsciously babied a little by the rest of the team due to her height. Shiro didn’t need anything else to worry about or feel guilty over. They **_all_** had bigger things to focus on. She was the only human woman on the team too, that didn’t help.  And she wasn’t going to make a scene over some magical glowy ( _probably Altean_ ) tattoos. The healing pods never registered anything being amiss.

She wore long sleeves. She never shared bathing spaces with the boys. The Princess had her own private everything. The only one who would see and potentially be bothered by it was her. She wasn’t bothered. It was a non issue.

She occasionally wondered if the boys had secret Altean markings too. But she didn’t ask.

And they weren’t _**secret**_. They just weren’t worth bringing up.

She was running recon on an old derelict of a ship on some planet she’d already forgotten the name of. It wasn’t worth keeping up with the string of planet names they’d never visit again. Keith was with her, Shiro still pushing him to be more of a leader. He acted more like a bodyguard. Which wasn’t a little condescending, _at all_.

But it meant while she was half-underneath a console, rewiring it into operation, he took the first attack.

Primitive local or wild animal didn’t make much of a difference just at the moment, but she was pretty sure it was a wild animal. A giant, alien planet, vicious, wild animal.

She’d half snagged her armor on the open panel scrambling to get out into the open to help. She’d freed herself just in time to see Keith get slammed back into the console three feet away with a pained grunt. She engaged her Bayard, green crackling light drawing the huge creature’s attention.

She felt more than heard Red’s screech of alarm through the Paladin bond and Green’s echoing wordless question in their partner-in-arm’s wake. The hit must’ve been pretty nasty to upset Red. She heard Keith groan behind her and his armored foot slip against the metal floor panels as he tried and failed to gain his feet.

All her then.

She danced forward, electricity arcing out and keeping the creature occupied while she searched for a weak spot to make it run off instead of continuing to mess with them.

It wasn’t going well. She was much stronger than she had been when the’d left the Garrison all that time ago, but she still wasn’t Shiro, or Allura, _or Keith_. She was tiring, and Keith was still on the floor somewhere behind her.

The creature sunk it’s teeth onto the armor above her Bayard, one claw catching on the colored shoulder piece as it scrabbled for purchase, clearly not wanting to be shocked again.

“YOU **_COULD_** JUST _**LEAVE!**_ ” 

She wrenched away from it, losing the arm of her suit in the process, but nothing worse than a few scratches and scrapes to her actual arm.

She felt Green’s hackles raise through their bond, and she fell back into a starting crouched position Allura had taught her. Altean martial arts. Neat. The broken edges of her armor crackled. She tightened her grip on the Bayard she had somehow managed to hold onto, and felt power shoot through her from Green.

She growled instinctually at the creature. It came out sounding more like Green’s roar, the noise impossibly big in her throat.

The creature froze. Backed up. Ran.

She slowly rose to her full height.

Behind her, Keith’s voice, “Pidge? …Pidge, your arm is glowing.”

He sounded shocked.

Okay, so maybe Human and Altean physiology was weirdly close enough that combined with eating Altean food, surviving via Altean tech, and the Voltron bonds was having some unexpected side effects. Maybe she was seeing more of those side effects because lower body mass meant it ran the course through her system faster.

“Yeah,” She sighed tiredly. “So what?” 

Maybe something was off.

Maybe.


	2. Yellow Paladin: Hunk

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A response ficlet to fanart by jen-iii: http://jen-iii.tumblr.com/post/157522203481/
> 
> Fic originally posted here: http://elfgrove.tumblr.com/post/157575490695

After Pidge’s little revelation, they’d all started talking about it. The flickering lights starting to manifest under thier skin. No one’s had been as extensive as hers, not at first. Everyone had been concerned, especially when the Altean medical equipment didn’t register them as being present.

It was Hunk that had made the logical connection after a whispered, urgent conversation with Pidge. He’d taken over the console from Coran and done something no one else had thought to ask the 10,000 year old med bay computers. What species did it register the Paladins as?

Allura and Coran had confidently insisted it would have them listed as unknown, with a unique number assigned in lieu of a name, since no one had bothered to input data naming them when they were the only Humans this far out into the galaxy.

Hunk had just nodded before turning back to the two Alteans as his theory was confirmed, “So what is a Jondo-Altean?”

Allura looked as if she’d swallowed something sour.

Coran stroked his mustache, muttering loudly in Altean words that didn’t translate, and brought up all of the Paladin files, confirming that each one listed the Paladin species as Jondo-Altean, with the addition of Galran to Keith’s genetic make-up. They’d all been through the healing pods at least once by now.

Shiro’s voice demanded answers without saying it, “Coran? Allura?”

“Jondo-Alteans were a race of Alteans, similar but with some minor genetic differences.” Coran didn’t look at them, still paging through files, “The last of them died out before Allura was born. They were a bit isolationist, so the files we had on them aren’t the most thorough. The computers must have assumed that the differences between us and you was because of that.”

“Can you fix it?”

“Probably!” Coran turned to them smiling, stroking his mustache again. “The trick will be unlinking all the data the computer has collected on you Paladins and linked as Jondo-Altean. Could take some time!”

“So the markings?”

“Oh, that I don’t know yet,” Coran turned back to continue typing away, laughing more like his normal self. “Because of that little mix-up, the med bay has been logging them as natural Altean markings. Assumed you were all just hitting puberty!”

“Altean tattoos,” Pidge said smugly. “Told you.”

“Those don’t look like Altean markings,” Allura huffed.

“Biologically, they’re registering as the same thing,” Coran supplied helpfully.

Pidge smirked. Allura pouted. Shiro and Hunk shared concerned looks.

That had been a couple of weeks ago.

Disentangling the medical files was not proving to be an easy task. Apparently stress and trips in and out of the healing pods sped the process, whatever it was, up. He blamed stress.

He had “Altean Tattoos”, the name had stuck despite Allura’s protests, winding up his left leg and over his hip. The same place as his position on Voltron. It probably wasn’t coincidence, and the bond to Voltron, to the Lions and the other Paladins was a factor in the biological phenomenon.

He wished he’d taken a few more biology and genetics courses right about now instead of his heavy focus on chemistry and physics. The glowing marks he hadn’t asked for or chosen were unsettling him. A lot.

“Whatcha doing buddy?”

Hunk glanced over his shoulder at Lance, forcing himself to smile despite his tangled thoughts, “Whipping up a midnight snack. Did you want anything?”

“Sure,” Lance took a seat nearby in the kitchen, watching him quietly for a while. “You haven’t been sleeping much, have you?”

“A little less than usual.”

He could feel Lance’s grimace at the understatement without turning to look, “What’s bothering you?”

“The… tattoos.”

“I thought you and Coran said they aren’t doing any harm?”

“They don’t **_seem_** to be,” Hunk corrected.

“You think they are?”

“Probably not. Maybe. I don’t know.” He stopped chopping, and let his head hang a little, eyes wandering to the glowing mountain range that arched over his hipbone.

“I think they look pretty cool.” Lance’s voice was warm, “Especially yours.”

“They don’t look very Altean.”

“Nah,” Lance agreed. “Yours look more like your Grandpa’s. But with lions.”

Hunk didn’t respond.

“You don’t like it?”

“Lance…”

“Dude,” Lance got up to come stand next to him. “They’re awesome. Like you.”

“Lance, my Grandfather’s tattoos mean something. They mean **_a lot_**. Culturally. There’s an entire process to getting them. This… It isn’t right. I haven’t earned them.”

Lance sputtered for a few minutes before he finally strung together something coherent, “Hunk, buddy. You’re the Yellow Paladin of Voltron. Hero of Balmera. We’ve saved countless worlds. We beat  ** _ZARKON_**. How have you not earned your tattoos?”

“The process…”

“They showed up slowly, right? As a result of everything you and Yellow have been through together?”

Hunk nodded.

“You earned them. We’re on the other side of the galaxy, so the process is a little alien, the tattoos are a little alien, but you still earned them, Buddy. Went through the process to get them. Trust me.”

He chuckled, “Thanks Lance.”

“Feeling better?”

“A little.”

“Also, damn you look bad ass. Just wait until Shay sees them.”

“ _ **Lance!**_ ”

Hunk blushed furiously, and Lance cackled loudly, thier laughter carrying down the nighttime halls of the Castleship.


	3. Blue Paladin: Lance

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A response ficlet to fanart by jen-iii: http://jen-iii.tumblr.com/post/157643826221
> 
> Fic originally posted here: http://elfgrove.tumblr.com/post/157921756458

Lance chuckled as he stepped into the water and his tattoos slowly came to life in response.

When they reached a steady cool glow, he threw his head back to smile up at the giant Blue Lion that towered over him, sitting on the sand of the wide and empty nighttime beach.

“You like them, huh, Blue?”

The Lion’s eyes flashed briefly, and he could see the return smile in her face, despite the fact that the other Paladins told him over and over again the Lions didn’t express themselves like that.

His Lady did.

“Me too.”

He continued wading out into the water. the makeshift surfboard in his hands. He loved the water. Always had. Almost as much as he loved flying through the stars. Then he had met Blue, and he found he loved the water even more. And Blue? She combined his two favorite things in the universe.

He missed home. The stars here were different, the constellations beautiful but cold and unfamiliar. If he didn’t look too long, he could pretend he was back on Varadero Beach, having snuck out again in the middle of the night to practice surfing without his siblings taunting him or making him screw up.

Almost.

He mounted the board and started paddling as the water deepened and the waves rose.

The first few waves he caught were unfamiliar, and months without practice saw him falling again and again into the water. The board wasn’t exactly what he was used to either, but he hadn’t been able to resist when he’d seen it in the market they’d visited earlier today a few kilometers away from this silent shore. He hit the water again, falling under the waves and having to swim back to the surface. He came back up laughing every time though.

He’d missed this, the simple feel of surfing and swimming.

Glancing back to the shoreline, he saw Blue, patiently watching him from the lavender colored sand.

He wasn’t getting anywhere with trying to surf on this thing tonight.

“You wanna come join me?”

Blue lowered her head to look at him more closely, questioning the wisdom of getting in the water with him when he had no protection beyond a pair of trunks.

“I know you love swimming too, Gorgeous.” He splashed water in her direction, “And it’s always more romantic to swim together in the moonlight with your special lady.”

She laughed at him, but it was a friendly, indulgent chuckle.

Blue Lion rose and delicately glided into the water, careful to watch how the waves of her passage affected him, but he was a strong swimmer, and up to being a match to his partner.

Besides, he knew she’d rescue him if anything went wrong. More than trusted, he just knew.

They swam together for another hour.

As the moon climbed high in the sky, she came up under him, lifting him out of the water as she rose, leaving him perched on her head, looking at the moon together.

He grinned, patting her head affectionately, “Sis would never believe I went surfing and swimming in an alien ocean. Not in a million years.”

His chest constricted at the thought. She might now. How long had he been gone for? What had Galaxy Garrison told her? They’d told everyone Shiro and the Holts were dead. That had been a lie. He might never see his big sister again. Or any of his family.

Blue rumbled beneath him, trying to provide some comfort.

He took in and released a shaky breath, “Until she meets you of course. Bring the most beautiful girl in the universe home, and Sis’ll never have the upper hand again.”

He listened to her wordless response and smiled, “Yeah, I wanna try that too.”

He stood up her head, bracing his feet against grooves in the wet metal, and feeling that cool sensation as his tattoos grew brighter again.

He felt something click as he and Blue seemed to connect on an extra level and he opened his mouth to laugh, as he felt the power of Blue surge through his own limbs.

Her mouth opened at the same time as his, and together they sent a rumbling, roaring, impossible, beautiful laugh towards the moon, the sound of it something neither could achieve alone.

“Pidge never said how incredible that feels!” He collapsed back to sit Blue’s head, “You’re amazing!”


End file.
